Caring for Missionaries on Home Assignment A Workbook for Churches in North America Compiled and Written by Charles A. Warner Senior Consultant—Global Member Care Barnabas International www.barnabas.org (Look for the new related website (http://membercare.online/) by winter 2021.) Acts 13:1-3 and 14:26-28 “1Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” (ESV) “26And from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 27And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28And they remained no little time with the disciples.” (ESV) 1 Sam. 30:6b “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” (ESV) 2 © 2020, 2016, 2014, 2011, 2007, 2002 Charles A. Warner Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopying, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. 10 September 2020 Version 7.3 Please email your comments, corrections or contributions to: [email protected]. The author will include them, with acknowledgment, in the next edition. 2 3 Table of Contents Introduction 5 The Church’s Organization of Care for Missionaries 7 Timeline 8 I. Before home assignment begins 8 II. During home assignment 12 A. The first day, and the first week or two 12 B. Some tips for the middle of home assignment 13 III. Ending home assignment the right way 14 A. The last month and the last week 14 B. Unplanned extended home assignments or resignation from a mission 15 Specific Needs 16 I. The four key needs 16 A. Housing and household setup 16 Some items you can loan or give to missionaries on home 16 assignment When a missionary needs housing “on the road” 17 B. Transportation 18 C. Communications 18 D. Financial support 19 II. Other important needs (in no special order) 20 A. Fitting back into the North American culture 20 B. Fitting back into the North American church 21 C. Education 22 D. Friendship 23 E. Hospitality 23 F. Babysitting/child watching 24 G. Communications 24 H. Rest/spiritual retreats/vacation/camps 24 Important Mission Ministry Information 25 I. Home office personnel and cross-cultural workers in North America 25 II. Missionaries from creative access countries 25 III. Missionaries on summer or short-term home assignments 26 → Special note on social security for US missionaries: 26 IV. Missionaries on a “Unified Budget” principle 27 V. Multicultural missionary marriages and families 27 VI. Single missionaries 28 VII. African-American cross-cultural missions and missionaries 28 VIII. Spanish speaking cross-cultural missions and missionaries from and to the 30 USA and Canada IX. Networked missions and care for missionaries 30 X. Mission and Disabilities 30 XI. Spirituality on the Mission Field – Historical Examples 30 3 4 Resources 31 Part 1 – Canada and the USA 31 Canada 31 USA – Overall list 32 USA – Resources by State 39 MK/TCK Ministries 46 Articles, Audio, Books and Video 47 Part 2 – Worldwide 62 Worldwide 62 Africa 63 Asia 64 Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia 67 Europe 67 Central, Latin and South America 71 Encouragement from the Scriptures 72 About the Author 73 4 5 Introduction There are now several words in use for what used to be described in one: furlough. Home Assignment, Home Ministry Assignment or HMA, leave, temporary reentry, furlough—all of these phrases attempt to describe the face-to-face reporting of missionaries to their prayer and financial supporters. Each of these terms has their pluses and minuses. For the sake of not being too verbally complex throughout this workbook, I will refer to this time as “home assignment.” You can substitute another term if you’d like. The information in this workbook is geared toward caring for missionaries by members of local churches, that is, ordinary church members who may have never cared for a missionary on home assignment before. Its focus is not for a member care or mental health professional. It is also geared toward missionaries from North America who will be on home assignment in North America for 8-18 months. (See the section entitled “Special Situations” at the end of this workbook for more information on home assignments outside of this range.) This is a workbook. Each section makes a statement about caring, makes suggestions for caring and then leaves room for “Your ideas” for caring for missionaries. Information in this workbook is broken down into six main sections: →Introduction →The church’s organization of care for missionaries →Timeline of home assignment care →Specific needs →Special situations →Resources Most mission organizations in North America provide excellent care for their missionaries on home assignment. However, they cannot provide all the care that local churches can provide. Home assignment is not one long vacation, or continual begging for money. Home assignment is times of rest and relaxation, both spiritually and physically; it’s traveling; it’s reporting to prayer and financial supporters what God has done through you in ministry; it’s more traveling; it’s spending time with family and friends; it’s putting kids in school or in college; it’s increasing one’s ministry skills through education or special training. It’s all this and much more! But most of all: You and your church can be a tremendous blessing to a missionary on home assignment! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear church member, I hope this workbook will be helpful in caring for your church’s missionaries. If you have any comments, suggestions or corrections, please send them to me and I’ll include them in the next edition, with acknowledgments. For this version of the workbook over 500 new resources were added. Version 8.0 will be published in Winter 2021 on the website: (http://membercare.online/), which is currently under construction. You don’t have to be bound by what’s in this workbook. Above all—be creative. But also be careful: Missionaries on home assignment will not only thank you for your care over and over, they might also be a catalyst for you going to the mission field! Be a blessing to a missionary today! Charley Warner September 2020 5 6 Home assignment may be described by the following six “R” words as a progressing cycle: 1. Releasing: Just as your church commissioned your missionaries for their work on the field, the church on the field is now releasing them to come back to you. NOTE: There are some ministry contexts where there is not yet a church planted on the field. Therefore, there is no church to release a missionary back to their home church(es). 2. Returning: This encompasses the idea of a missionary finishing their term of service well, storing things, advance planning for home assignment, and initial setup after arriving back in North America. For some missionaries it is required to take a home assignment at a certain time in their term and for a certain length of time. 3. Reporting: Just as Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14 and 15 reported to churches from Antioch to Jerusalem on “what God had done through them,” so missionaries report today to their churches. This is also a time of recruiting new missionaries. 4. Rejoicing: As missionaries report, you have the opportunity to rejoice with them about what God did through them and together to give glory to God. Romans 12:15 tells us to “rejoice with those who rejoice.” 5. Rest: Home assignment should be a time of rest, recuperation and renewal physically, mentally and spiritually. Unfortunately, many missionaries remark that they “can’t wait to get back to the field in order to really have a rest.” It shouldn’t be this way! 6. Retooling: Many missionaries choose to receive further education or other specialized training in order to improve the effectiveness of their ministry when back on the field. Finally, the cycle begins again by releasing your missionary from your part of the universal church to return to the church at their field of service. Your ideas on helping your missionary through their life cycle: 6 7 The Church’s Organization of Care for Missionaries No program in any organization can be run well without dedicated advance planning by specially chosen and trained staff. Your church needs to decide on and design your own care program for missionaries on home assignment—a program that is tailored to your church and the needs of your missionaries. Every church needs to designate a person, family, Sunday school class or small group to be the “point” person/group for taking care of a particular missionary or missionary family. Some churches call these groups “Missionary Encouragement Teams,” or “Missionary Support Teams.” Such teams could be for missionaries or they could be for organizations, theological schools, or other ministries, etc., which your church supports. If your church has a Missions Pastor they should coordinate a missionary’s home assignment at their church by delegating responsibilities to designated groups within your church.